Glyph
by Rainfelt aka Phoe-chan
Summary: You always read about those stories where Naruto was trained away from Konoha, comes back, and bruises Sasuke's ego. However, that gets old fast. So let's make it a twist. How better to maim Sasuke's ego than having Sakura show him how it's done?


**AN:** I found this hidden in my stories folder (It's huge) and figured I'd post it. Dunno if I'll continue it, but hey. It amused me.

**Edit:** I fucking _hate_ the character limit for summaries. And on that note, I HATE NOT BEING ABLE TO USE A FRIGGIN HYPHEN IN MY SUMMARY! …That is all.

**Disclaimer:** I disclaim.

**Summary:** You always read about those stories where Naruto was trained away from Konoha, comes back, and bruises Sasuke's ego. However, that gets old fast. So let's make it a twist. How better to maim Sasuke's ego than having Sakura show him how it's done?

**Pairings:** Undecided.

**Glyph**

_First Sign_

* * *

She stood in front of the Konoha gates, thumbs hooked behind the straps of her backpack. Her feet stood about a foot apart, solidly planted on the ground. So this was her home. The great hidden village, Konohagakure. 

She held up her passport for the guards to see. They let her pass through with ease.

She was_ so_ ready for this.

* * *

Iruka had been given orders to up the academy exam this year. The last year's exams were way too easy and the entire class had graduated. So addition to the one technique, the students would need to take a written exam. He winced for he knew one student would have extreme difficulties with this exam. 

'_Poor Naruto. Perhaps he'll get a lucky break this year.'_

He watched the student chattering around in the academy room, huddled in groups and spread out across the room. He sighed, propping his chin up with his hand as he went over the criteria for the exam. The children weren't supposed to know what the exam would entail because it was part of being prepared for anything--something a ninja should constantly practice. He glanced at the list of students on the roll sheet and their ranks in the class.

He stood up, tapping the desktop with a ruler to get the students' attention. "If you'll take your seats now, we'll start the exam. Roll call. Aburame Shino?"

* * *

She could hear the voice of the instructor as she neared the classroom she was supposed to be in. She glanced up at the number on the door. Ah, the Hokage gave good directions. She smirked to herself and walked in, unannounced, and placed one hand on her hip, the other resting on the frame of the door as the teacher called out the last of the names. 

"Uzumaki Naruto?"

"HERE!"

"Yamanaka Ino?"

"Present!"

He smiled, setting the roll sheet down when his eyes caught a flash of pink and red in the doorway. He blinked, standing up to see a girl with pink hair and a red over-dress on. She had a backpack hanging from her shoulders and she seemed to be waiting for something. "May I help you, Miss...?"

"Haruno." She replied, stepping inside the classroom. She could feel the eyes of the students on her and she inwardly smirked. _'That's right, kids. Drink it in.''_

"Haruno-san, then. What may I do for you? Are you looking for a room?"

"I've found it. I'm here to take the academy exam. Here is my folder and the Hokage's signature to let me partake in the exam."

Iruka's brows rose as he glanced at the folder with the Hokage's seal on it. He flipped through it quickly, seeing everything was official and in order before nodding. "Very well then. Would you like to introduce yourself? We're about to start the exam."

"There's no need," She replied, dismissing him with a wave of her hand. "I'm just here to take the exam--not to get acquainted with other students."

He blinked. Well. If he didn't know any better he'd say she was almost a female replica of the class's top-ranking student.

The girl looked around, weighing her options on seats. There was one free next to a boy with a dog on his head. One to the left of a girl with blonde hair and one beside—_'hellllooo...'_

She caught sight of a head full of raven black hair and a brooding face and smirked. _'Isn't he a looker? I bet he's one of those "I'm better than you; leave me alone" types. I think I'll sit beside him. Besides, it seems he has a fan-club. This should be interesting...'_

She pushing her hair behind her shoulder and walked up to the third row, sliding her backpack off her shoulders and onto the floor, then took her seat. The boy didn't spare her a glance and in return, she didn't spare him one. She knew exactly how to play it. She wasn't going to make a bumbling fool of herself.

She could feel the glares of half of the other girls around the classroom on her back and she had to stop herself from chortling out loud. Oh, this was too much fun. She hadn't been in this town thirty minutes and she was having the time of her life.

"OK, class. This year, the exam is going to be tough. We're not doing a test on just one technique this year--but, instead, you will be required to perform one technique _and_ take a written exam."

Groans and shouts of protests were heard across the room. Two people seemed not to care, however.

Both were sitting on the left side of row three.

'_Hn. Idiots. If they can't pass that then they shouldn't be allowed to become genin.'_

'_That's supposed to be hard? What's the purpose of passing a student if he or she can't even do that much?'_

"All right then, the written exam will be first. Please put away all items except a pencil and face forward. Anyone caught cheating will automatically fail."

The pink-haired girl reached down, pulling a pencil out of her backpack. She rolled her shoulders, working loose the kinks in her muscles caused by the long trip she had been on.

She smiled as she received her test, quickly scribbling down her last name--and only her last name.

And then her pencil began to move in a blur across the page. These questions were _easy!_ She laughed inwardly as she moved down the page, knowing the answer before she finished reading the question.

Meanwhile, Iruka was further inspecting the folder that the pink-haired girl had given him, brow dipped low on his forehead. He'd never heard of the surname 'Haruno' before and most certainly he didn't know anyone with such a striking color of hair. Everything in the folder was legitimate, if not a bit vague. Well, if the Hokage gave her permission to enter the exams, which he did, judging by the seal on the folder, then he had no choice but to let her take the exams. He just hoped she could handle such a tough exam.

His train of thought was brought to a crashing halt when he looked up to see her standing in front of his desk, holding the test in her hand. He frowned. "Do you have a question?" _'I knew it was going to be hard on her…'_

"I'm finished."

"What?" Iruka stared hard at her as she repeated herself, before taking the paper and looking down at it. "Uhm, OK, then please have a seat and wait until the others are done."

She nodded and turned around, ignoring any curious glances thrown her way before taking her seat and pulling out a large book to read, flipping it open and burying her nose in it.

A certain raven-haired boy glanced over to her to see the book was entitled "Visual Genjutsu: Volume 2." She probably didn't even know what she was reading.

Iruka, however, quickly discovered that he had greatly underestimated this girl. There was not a red mark on her paper sans the perfect score at the top.

He'd even purposely put a Chuunin level bonus question on the test and she had gotten that, too. Shaking his head in awe, he put aside her paper and waited for the other students to finish.

* * *

It was another hour before the rest of the students finished. There was a short break while Iruka and his assistant, Mizuki, graded papers. After about ten minutes, Iruka left another assistant to continue the grading as Mizuki walked off into another room with a clipboard and Iruka stood in front of the class with his own clipboard. "When I call your name, you will come with me into the next room and perform one technique of your choice. Some preferred techniques are the Bunshin no jutsu, Kawarimi no jutsu, and Henge no jutsu." Iruka fixed Naruto with a pointed look that dared him to try his orioke no jutsu. Naruto shifted nervously and glanced out the window. 

Iruka called down the first student on his list and the trials began. Some students began to chat, some fretted over their upcoming turn and some seemed to care less, like the pineapple-head in the back row asleep.

When Haruno was called, she stood and closed her book, walking down to the front of the class and followed Iruka into the next room. "All right, Haruno-san. Do you understand what to do?"

The pink-haired girl nodded and quickly completed a short sequence of seals. "Bunshin no jutsu." Five bunshin appeared. Each of them formed more seals and chorused "Henge!" and transformed into replicas of random students from the class, down to a tee.

Mizuki and Iruka stared at her before Iruka snapped out of his trance. "T-Thank you, Haruno-san. You're excused for lunch…"

The girl left and Iruka looked over to Mizuki. "No genin should be able to do that."

"I know," Mizuki replied, scribbling down on his clipboard. "Her chakra control was exceptional."

"Better than most Chuunin," Iruka added. This girl was something else.

* * *

Upon finishing the exams, the students were given an hour break while Iruka and his assistants finalized the grades for the exam. When they came back in, they saw on the chalk board the list of grades in order from best to last. 

And there was a commotion.

For Uchiha Sasuke was not ranked first. His name had been bumped down to second rank.

Instead was the name "Haruno."

The pink-haired girl, able to read the board from her seat despite the students crowded around it, only smirked and returned to her book.

Too easy.

_To be continued…_

* * *

**AN:** I don't exactly know where this will be going should I ever continue it. I have a few vague ideas but merely as stated before, it was something I had started a long time ago and just now found and finished up. I also can't guarantee that this would be SasuSaku, because in all honesty, I really can't stand Sasuke and I'm reeeeaaallly into NejiSaku. 

Oh, well. Feedback's appreciated.

_Phoe-chan_


End file.
